The issue before the First District Court of Appeal in Barati was whether the State of Florida, through the state’s Attorney General, has the authority to dismiss a False Claims Act (“FCA”) lawsuit the State deems frivolous without the relator’s consent. The relator filed a motion to strike the Attorney General’s notice of dismissal, arguing that the Attorney General only has the power to dismiss whistleblower suits where she has intervened. The Florida Justice Reform Institute filed an amicus curiae brief supporting the State’s authority to voluntarily dismiss frivolous suits brought in the name of the State. Ultimately the First District Court of Appeal decided that it could not rule on whether the State has the authority to unilaterally dismiss a FCA suit because the trial court had not ruled on its jurisdiction to consider the case in the first instance.
FJRI represented by William W. Large, and John T. Boese and Kayla Stachniak Kaplan of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, LLP.